NFL odds: The uncertainty affecting Packers-Bears on Sunday night

The term rivalry in sports is reserved for two teams who battle each other in a close series of games. Historically, the Chicago Bears hold a 93-90-6 edge on the Green Bay Packers heading into Week 10’s Sunday Night Football matchup. However, since Jay Cutler became Chicago’s quarterback, the Packers have dominated the Bears, going 10-2 straight-up in the last 12 meetings and 9-3 against the spread. This time, Cutler will try to lead his team to an upset of Green Bay at Lambeau Field as a 7-point underdog.

Overall, Cutler is just 1-10 lifetime against the Packers, including a 21-14 loss in the 2011 NFC Championship Game, with the Bears closing as 3.5-point home underdogs at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Chicago is coming off a bye week that followed a brutal 51-23 road loss to the New England Patriots in Week 8 as a 6-point underdog. Cutler threw for 227 yards against the Patriots with three touchdowns, one interception and a lost fumble. He has turned the ball over an NFL-high 12 times, and the Bears are 2-9 under head coach Marc Trestman when losing the turnover battle over the past two seasons compared to a perfect 8-0 when they win it.

Green Bay was also off last week and owns a remarkable record of 7-0-1 ATS in its past eight games after a bye. Like Chicago, the Packers were routed on the road in Week 8, losing 44-23 to the New Orleans Saints. The closing NFL betting lines showed them as 2-point underdogs against the Saints, who played solid defensively in the second half, limiting Green Bay to just one touchdown after the intermission on a 14-yard run by QB Aaron Rodgers. The health of Rodgers has been a concern for the Pack since he hurt his hamstring at New Orleans, and he was not the same in that game following the injury. Rodgers broke his collarbone in the last home meeting with the Bears last year and was replaced by backup Seneca Wallace in a 27-20 Green Bay loss as a 9.5-point favorite. He had won the previous six head-to-head matchups against Chicago.

Totals bettors will find an extremely high number for a Bears vs. Packers matchup at 53.5 but should look for a lower-scoring game between the teams. In fact, in the last 30 years you will find only three instances of a total 50 or higher in the rivalry, and all of them have happened within the past three seasons. Two of those games took place at Lambeau, and both of them went UNDER the total en route to a 5-1 mark in the last six meetings there. The UNDER is also 6-1 in the last seven road games after a bye for Chicago and 6-1 in the past seven games following a bye for Green Bay.